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Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus

High background noise is an impediment to signal detection and perception. We report the use of multiple solutions to improve signal perception in the acoustic and visual modality by the Bornean rock frog, Staurois parvus. We discovered that vocal communication was not impaired by continuous abiotic...

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Autores principales: Grafe, T. Ulmar, Preininger, Doris, Sztatecsny, Marc, Kasah, Rosli, Dehling, J. Maximilian, Proksch, Sebastian, Hödl, Walter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655089
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037965
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author Grafe, T. Ulmar
Preininger, Doris
Sztatecsny, Marc
Kasah, Rosli
Dehling, J. Maximilian
Proksch, Sebastian
Hödl, Walter
author_facet Grafe, T. Ulmar
Preininger, Doris
Sztatecsny, Marc
Kasah, Rosli
Dehling, J. Maximilian
Proksch, Sebastian
Hödl, Walter
author_sort Grafe, T. Ulmar
collection PubMed
description High background noise is an impediment to signal detection and perception. We report the use of multiple solutions to improve signal perception in the acoustic and visual modality by the Bornean rock frog, Staurois parvus. We discovered that vocal communication was not impaired by continuous abiotic background noise characterised by fast-flowing water. Males modified amplitude, pitch, repetition rate and duration of notes within their advertisement call. The difference in sound pressure between advertisement calls and background noise at the call dominant frequency of 5578 Hz was 8 dB, a difference sufficient for receiver detection. In addition, males used several visual signals to communicate with conspecifics with foot flagging and foot flashing being the most common and conspicuous visual displays, followed by arm waving, upright posture, crouching, and an open-mouth display. We used acoustic playback experiments to test the efficacy-based alerting signal hypothesis of multimodal communication. In support of the alerting hypothesis, we found that acoustic signals and foot flagging are functionally linked with advertisement calling preceding foot flagging. We conclude that S. parvus has solved the problem of continuous broadband low-frequency noise by both modifying its advertisement call in multiple ways and by using numerous visual signals. This is the first example of a frog using multiple acoustic and visual solutions to communicate in an environment characterised by continuous noise.
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spelling pubmed-33600102012-05-31 Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus Grafe, T. Ulmar Preininger, Doris Sztatecsny, Marc Kasah, Rosli Dehling, J. Maximilian Proksch, Sebastian Hödl, Walter PLoS One Research Article High background noise is an impediment to signal detection and perception. We report the use of multiple solutions to improve signal perception in the acoustic and visual modality by the Bornean rock frog, Staurois parvus. We discovered that vocal communication was not impaired by continuous abiotic background noise characterised by fast-flowing water. Males modified amplitude, pitch, repetition rate and duration of notes within their advertisement call. The difference in sound pressure between advertisement calls and background noise at the call dominant frequency of 5578 Hz was 8 dB, a difference sufficient for receiver detection. In addition, males used several visual signals to communicate with conspecifics with foot flagging and foot flashing being the most common and conspicuous visual displays, followed by arm waving, upright posture, crouching, and an open-mouth display. We used acoustic playback experiments to test the efficacy-based alerting signal hypothesis of multimodal communication. In support of the alerting hypothesis, we found that acoustic signals and foot flagging are functionally linked with advertisement calling preceding foot flagging. We conclude that S. parvus has solved the problem of continuous broadband low-frequency noise by both modifying its advertisement call in multiple ways and by using numerous visual signals. This is the first example of a frog using multiple acoustic and visual solutions to communicate in an environment characterised by continuous noise. Public Library of Science 2012-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3360010/ /pubmed/22655089 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037965 Text en Grafe et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Grafe, T. Ulmar
Preininger, Doris
Sztatecsny, Marc
Kasah, Rosli
Dehling, J. Maximilian
Proksch, Sebastian
Hödl, Walter
Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title_full Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title_fullStr Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title_full_unstemmed Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title_short Multimodal Communication in a Noisy Environment: A Case Study of the Bornean Rock Frog Staurois parvus
title_sort multimodal communication in a noisy environment: a case study of the bornean rock frog staurois parvus
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3360010/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655089
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037965
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